Another reason to like summer

[mousme]

Fresh veggies are just about the best thing about summer. Maybe the fresh fruit and berries beat the veggies, but not by much.

I have become a rabbit of late. I've been eating almost nothing but veggies, mostly raw. My gazpacho was a success, I might add, despite the absence of fresh dill. I am a little out of sorts with my body, which has decided to *gain* weight on an almost exclusively-veggie diet (go figure), but the joy I am getting out of the fruits and veggies pretty much cancels out any minor vexation on my part.

I am currently experimenting with veggie smoothies. I have been having tofu and fruit smoothies for breakfast on and off for a few months now, and the results have been invariably delicious, so I decided to branch out into vegetables and see if I couldn't simplify my lunch prep. Right now I just blended a bunch of celery, spinach, a banana, carrot juice, and half a cup of (very yummy organic) vanilla yogurt. It's not bad, but I've shoved it in the freezer, testing out a theory that it will be delicious when properly chilled. I may make it with ice cubes next time. Then again, I may find a combination I like better.

My coworker printed out a bunch of veggie smoothie recipes yesterday, and I'm using those as a basis for my own experimentation. If nothing else, working with a weight-and-nutrition-obsessed girl has made me more aware of what I'm putting in my mouth. I was a little dismayed at *just* how bad Tim Horton's stuff is, especially the muffins and Timbits. It makes me a little sad, but I have decided that I'm not going to deprive myself if I really want something: I'll just stop making a habit of going every day and simply go for a treat, or if I go more regularly, I'll just stick to a coffee, which is my main reason for going anyway. It'll cost less in the long run, anyway.

Whatever benighted person said that it was cheap to eat well on a regular basis was sadly deluded, I must say. Sure, if you're eating nothing but canned and dry food, then it's cheap. The minute you get into fresh produce the prices skyrocket. I honestly don't know how people with reduced incomes manage. Even when I was earning my lowest salary, which wasn't minimum wage, I found it hard to both pay my bills and eat healthy and fresh things.

Ah well. At least now I can buy a $3 bottle of carrot juice and not worry how the hell I'm going to pay rent. It's been nearly a year since I've been financially solvent, and I'm still not used to the feeling. I still boggle every time I see money in my bank account at the end of the month. It's not a ton of money, but it's not a negative amount, which is something in and of itself.

Comments

[tcaptain.livejournal.com]

Whatever benighted person said that it was cheap to eat well on a regular basis

This has been a MAJOR pet peeve of mine. It seems whenever I see an article or a show segment on "eating healthy", the authority in the spotlight trots out this old canard.

Its extremely cheap to stay alive and eat badly. Its complicated and pricy to eat well. I don't know why so many people insist that its the other way around.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Yup. I adore the results, but the whole chop/peel/core and other prep work is definitely time-consuming, and the whole affair tends to be pricier and more complicated.

It's worth it, for me, but I can see how people with less time and less money wouldn't go for it.

Speaking of which, we should think about another cooking/movie day. We still have the third Highlander to watch, and Season 3 of BSG is coming out soon, I think. :)

[tcaptain.livejournal.com]

Oh hell yeah :)

I think we still have a ways to go for BSG 3...I've been trying to nail down the release date and the only thing I found were "rumors" that it was in August, however neither Amazon nor Metro Video have any news (which they would by now).

As for the the third Highlander, we also have the fourth one...and I'm planning on picking up the "The Crow - Stairway to Heaven" complete series pack.

Labor day weekend is pretty packed (tons of family stuff) every year...but everything's fairly open after that...so let me know :)

[miseri.livejournal.com]

I always thought that old gem referred to a comparison between "cooking your own freshly-bought produce" and "ordering at a restaurant or getting take-out or getting frozen prepared foods".

Also, I generally watch for sales and stock up then.

[tcaptain.livejournal.com]

Well (almost) anything you cook yourself is cheaper than take-out. I learned that this year...my first big cut back when tightening the belt was cutting all take out (which also led to some tightening of the other belt).

As for frozen? Not anymore (in my experience), I've been shopping the frozen foods lately (love the marinated chicken breasts from Costco) and there's definitely a huge difference from fresh unless there's a mega sale or something. YMMV however.

Add in veggies and fruits...the price shoots up a bit.

However, whenever I've seen the comparison, they usually specifically mention things like Kraft dinner and such...which boggles the mind.

My favorite statement (and this is some years ago in the Gazette I think..so I'm loosely paraphrasing) was something like:

"I don't understand why someone on a limited or fixed income does not eat healthier as it is cheaper to buy healthy fresh food" I think he was referring to a study about how the lower class was fast becoming obese (at a higher rate than other classes).

Call me deluded...

[rosy1.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I not only agree that eating healthy is cheaper, I can probably produce receipts to prove it.

If you are buying only organic veggies in health food boutiques or only locally grown MAYBE, but if you are not adverse to buying U.S. or other imported produce and know where and how to shop, then veggies, fresh fruits and grains are MUCH cheaper than meats, high-fat cheeses (I always feel like I am buying drugs with some of the prices...) or the absolute worst... prepared foods, especially goodies. (Homemade goodies are dirt cheap and contain tops 4 or 5 ingredients, next time you're in a store, read the back of a bag of cookies or those prepared cakes at Loblaws.

You just have to know where to shop:
In NDG: Rocky Montana on Sherbrooke St. West for fruits and veggies plus Marché Akhavan (on Sherbrooke St. W) for unbelievable nuts at great prices
For LaSalle, Verdun and surrounding area no place beats "Frutta Si"
http://www.lavoixpopulaire.com/annonce2-2011904-Frutta-si-super-marche-internationnal.htmlfor fruits, veggies, pasta (including whole grain and high fibre)...
West Island: Mourelatos - everything above, plus the best tzatziki - yes, even better Akhavan's

Re: Call me deluded...

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Compare those prices to buying pasta and rice in bulk, however, and you're ultimately looking at a higher receipt.

Yes, cheeses are stupidly expensive, unless you're buying the cheap super-market kind, which comes at $4 a packet and lasts a single person at least two weeks.

A $10 packet of ground beef will make me food to last a full week, sometimes more. $10 worth of veggies lasts half as long, if I'm lucky.

Re: Call me deluded...

[pasley.livejournal.com]

I agree rosy1!

(Except for the part about Mourelatos having better tzatziki than Akhavan's. Impossible!)

Re: Call me deluded...or something nicer ;0

[rosy1.livejournal.com]

(Except for the part about Mourelatos having better tzatziki than Akhavan's. Impossible!)

I KNOW! That's what I said too when someone suggested it, but it is really incredible and I am a Akhavan devotee! :)
Have you had the fresh ricotta from Ackavan over pasta? You just add a bit of the boiling water from the pasta, good olive oil and black pepper for the healthiest, bestest "alfredo" sauce.

[pasley.livejournal.com]

Fresh produce from the Atwater Market is a helluva lot cheaper than a bunch of junk from Provigo! Yes, fresh, market (not supermarket) produce is cheapest in the summer and fall when it's most plentiful, but junk/prepackaged/processed food is always more expensive any time of the year. (We're not talking organic and/or prepackaged health food stuff, however; that, I agree, is expensive. I could never afford to do all my shopping at Optimum or some such place.)

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Less expensive than junk, yes, but not less expensive than "cheap" food which is high in processed carbs and sugars and other unhealthy things. Also more expensive than meat, in terms of how long it will keep and how much it can be stretched.

Pasta, onions and meat sauce make meals for a week for me. The equivalent cost in veggies lasts me half as long.

[pasley.livejournal.com]

Okay, but you simply specified "eating well." Eating meat is not necessarily unhealthy eating! I guess it all goes back to the balance thing.

As for making produce stretch, the key is to buy in small amounts, or else in large amounts and then make a bunch of soup or a casserole *right away* before it all starts to spoil.

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking today how cheap it can be to eat healthily.

I made stuffed tomatoes tonight that were delicious. They included:

1. a "splurge" bag of basmati and wild rice - 2E
2. a small container of salad shrimp in water - 1.19E
3. 4 large tomatoes - maybe 1.5E
4. a very small zucchini - maybe .75E
spices

The tomatoes, the zucchini, and the fresh basil I used actually came from my garden, so I'm estimating prices. And the spices we had in the kitchen, but then again, I have 3/4 of the bag of my rice left over.

The meal fed two people to absolutely stuffed, was really good, and had some left over for right around 5 Euros.

Now you're right that that is still a lot more than ramen noodles or mac and cheese boxes, but I've seen TV shows saying that lower income families are becoming obese because they can't afford to eat healthily and instead eat at McDonalds. And that just blows my mind. 5E buys one meal at McDonalds, if you don't get an expensive meal, and it doesn't taste nearly as good.

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

Argh, runaway HTML tags...

[ai731.livejournal.com]

IME fresh veg from the market stalls is a lot cheaper in Europe than in North America.

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

Maybe - like I said, we grow our own. But I still don't think that those prices would be that difficult to find in North America.

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

my body, which has decided to *gain* weight on an almost exclusively-veggie diet (go figure)

As I understand it (and I'm the farthest thing from a nutritionist), when you lower your caloric intake, the body reacts by becoming more efficient and storing more energy -- going into "famine mode" as it were. So dieting often causes a temporary weight gain -- at least until it "gets used to" the new regime. But how long this takes, I have no idea.

How long ago did you change your diet?

[ai731.livejournal.com]

When I was living on a very healthy, everything home cooked, big batches at once student diet in the USA for a year and a half, I couldn't afford to buy fruit. Ever. rosy1 is absolutely right that if you know where to shop, you can get good fresh produce cheaply. Except it means going 'round to a half-dozen stores which is expensive in either time or gas. Also, I worry about how many 'food miles' the cheap veg has.

I make casserole-style bulk lunches that come out to 1.50-2.00 per portion. Cheaper than, or at least the same price as, just about anything you could buy ready-made or in a can/box. BUT they don't have much veg in them. Taras can't eat it... They have a lot of beans, and rice, and potatoes, and pasta, and tomato sauce, and tofu. But no peppers or celery or carrots...

[mousme.livejournal.com]

"Food miles" are a concern for me too. I don't really have the leisure time (or the gas money) to run around looking for the cheapest produce available. I'd rather go to Atwater Market and pay a little extra (since I can afford it these days) for something I know is grown locally.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Ack! Sorry. That was meant to be a general reply to the post and not a personal reply to your comment.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured it must be something like that. I tacked up the Canadian Guide to Nutrition on my fridge early last week (or late the week before, I forget), and have been following that.

I'm hoping things will even out soon. Still, I am mildly peeved. ;)

[forthright.livejournal.com]

I agree with the various people who direct you away from the big grocery stores and towards smaller produce stores / Chinese groceries / Atwater Market as a source of cheaper produce. It is also true that a lot of the super-hyped organic omega-3 cruelty-free etc. food is going to cost you a great deal if that's your thing. And of course the traditional student diet of takeout pizza and Chinese 3-5 times a week minimum is ridiculously expensive and unhealthy to boot. Finally, healthy rice and pasta dishes are dirt cheap and easy to cook.

Having said all that, a $1.00 box of Kraft Dinner plus $0.40 for two wieners to add some protein can provide lunch for two adults and one hungry toddler. $1.40 will not ever provide enough fresh produce for a similar healthy meal, and if you want real non-processed meat to add to that, good luck! Not to mention that if you're working long hours and only have yourself to feed, the effort to put together such a meal is considerable for the end result. Despite all those points in the first paragraph I think you're completely right that it is *not* cheap to eat well on a regular basis.

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

It really depends on how you define "eating well". I agree, feeding a toddler is more expensive, because they're picky eaters, and the kind of produce they will eat is almost invariably more expensive than macaroni unless you grow your own. Having said that, in college I lived on cabbage, potatoes, and milk powder almost exclusively. I would often buy the produce in bulk 'as is' and then have to throw out the bruised bits. I got all my nutritional needs met for under $100 a month - I was a little too thin for my bone structure, but getting my RDA of everything, neither of which would have been true if I'd been living on ramen like most college students. You can eat more enjoyably on a bigger budget, and cheaper if you aren't too worried about vitamin content, but for the maximum nutritive value per dollar I think the cheapest, most filling vegetables are the way to go. I was working in a food bank at the time, and wryly calculated that my clients were eating a dollar value of about four times what I was in a month, and not getting any discernable vitamins at all most meals.

[forthright.livejournal.com]

Yeah, while I don't think that the cabbage-potato-milk powder diet is what people are talking about when they refer to the "eat well for less" principle, I also agree that some people don't seem to have the slightest ability to figure out where there is real value in their food budget and where they are just wasting money.

If I ever needed to, I could cut our food budget in half without *too* much hardship, although as you say, toddler food creates a bit of a problem. I may spend $1.75 a day on a coffee from Tim Horton's, but you can be sure that if I need to save $50 a month I know where I could start! As for myself, I could survive very happily on what would be an extremely high-carb but nonetheless adequate diet of rice, potatoes and pasta with some very simple flavours, but that's me, and that wouldn't work for everyone.

I do really think though that some of the 'eat well for less' rhetoric comes from vegetarians who think they are saving money by not buying meat, as part of a rationalization for their diet. Many of the vegetarians I know are buying high-cost expensive store-bought organics that can't possibly be cheaper than a whole chicken or a kilo of stewing beef. Or they eat out three times a week and then no matter what is in their pantry, it's not cheaper!

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

I think part of the issue is the mainstreaming of foodie-dom, where people simultaneously use "eating well" to mean "eating a delicious, restaurant-quality, home cooked meal out of fashionable ingredients" and "getting all the nutrients you need." You can't do the first on a tight budget. You just can't. There are some few foods for which it's possible to both cut costs and improve quality by cooking from scratch: Home-baked bread, even organic, is both cheaper and better than store-bought if you buy your flour in bulk. Rice, dry pasta and dry beans bought in bulk are cheaper than Kraft Dinner, or for that matter meat. Other than that kind of thing, the only way you can save money by eating more nutritiously is to *only* look at the prices when you're in the produce aisle. We would not be able to eat organic produce if we did not fill up on big sacks of onions and carrots, which are the cheapest organic foods going, and use the more exciting stuff very sparingly.

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

And, I have friends who drink 2l bottles of Coke a day, and eat fast-food lunches every day at work, but make snide remarks about how I must be rich to eat organic produce. Whereas my feeling is, you would have to feel pretty rich to spend that kind of money on totally empty calories. There's a value difference there.

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

It may also depend on the size of your appetite, I think. I am impressed that you can feed 3 people one box of KD plus 2 weiners! It would take about twice as much of each to feed the three in my household. But a cabbage and a potato, which costs about the same, can make a very filling hash for that many people and maybe even leave leftovers.

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

Oh, and what originally prompted me to post in this thread (and then I totally forgot about it), was, can I please have your recipe for gazpacho with dill? That sounds awesome!!

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Sure! I am planning to post it in recipe_trade at some point in the near future. Someone else has requested it as well, and it's yummy. :)